Load balancing software help?

[Symphonicx666]

So I was wondering....

 

I'm not exactly an avid PC gamer or anything, I just have a few games on my machine and Skyrim is one of them...my machine is actually an 8-core 3D render engine and is really for professional use of programs such as Cinema 4D and After Effects.

 

So from what I can tell, and I admit here *I AM NO EXPERT* but Skyrim seems to be a *censored* with it's core-useage and the sheer amount of data being processed by the CPU.

 

So with my 8 core render machine (which has a GTX590 in it), I was wondering if there was a chance of unlocking my other 4 cores on the 2nd processor....I know its not exactly built for gaming set ups and games will not really touch that 2nd processor - but that's not the issue, I can deal with that...what I'd like to do is push ALL my processes that aren't Skyrim onto my 2nd processor...essentially freeing up my 2.83ghz Quad Xeon completely and allowing Skyrim to run better....

 

Not that its actually too bad at the moment, I see FPS drop to about 30fps in towns and cities....so it's not a huge issue...but I could probably push more out of it if I could load balance in this way - so my question is, in layman's terms -is this even possible? And could you advise me on how to redistribute my non-skyrim processes to another processor? I realise this post may be a complete pie in the sky - as google hasn't been too forthcoming with "CPU LOAD BALANCING SOFTWARE" results...lol

 

Specs:

Dual Xeon Quad Core 2.8ghz E5440

16gb ram

GTX590

 

This week I am adding a 1tb Revodrive hybrid as the OS disk. But not yet/

 

PS: please don't get all p*ssy with "omgz your using a xeon for gaming" bulls***. It doesn't matter, it's not a gaming machine. It's 3D renderer. Please don't let the thread descend into a discussion on which processors are better and who's mad for buying "hardcore tech" or anything like that. The machine is cheap, well equipped and fast as f**k but it does NOT exist as a gaming machine. It's a graphics renderer!!

[Iv000]

Don't even bother.

While Skyrim is better optimized then other Bethesda games, it still isn't very well optimized.

If it was, right now I would play it with 60 FPS constantly without any slowdowns, ever.

 

Is it really that hard to make the game use more cores (Right now, it's using 2 out of 6 cores, even in the most stressful situations, like cities)? Surely someone at Bethesda (a 300+ team) knows how to do it.

[elleonblanco]

I still don't get your frame rate problems. I maintain 60FPS or better with the following setup:

 

EVGA GTX 470 superclocked

 

Intel 3.6 ghz quad core

 

Asus Sabertooth X58 Motherboard

 

8 gigs Corsair DDR3 Ram

 

Creative X-Fi gamer sound card

 

Had a few issues before updating to latest Nvidia drivers but that went away as soon as I installed them.

 

Now here is an issue that might be affecting you. On machines running SATA 3 in raid for primary drive I have seen serious throughput problems when moving files from a folder to a folder on the same drive. I installed Skyrim on a separate Seagate Barracuda 300 gig drive and have had absolutely no stutter or lag. The reason for this was on the very same machine until I did the same thing with FNV I had very bad stutter and horrible frame rates.

[runicNomad]

i would take a look at these ini tweaks

http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=337

 

they do not deal with apps outside of skyrim but they do offer ways to force high priority as well as put more multi-threading onto different processes.

this game is so insanely cpu dependent and yes not very well optimized for PC users who have more options than consoles to make the game play smoother. the community will change this over time. the ini I pointed to is a step in the right direction for sure.

 

shadows and lack of multi threading optimization is this games biggest issues as far as performance goes.

[Symphonicx666]

Thanks for the replies - and especially for being rational about the issues.

I think I have a few bottlenecks aside from just the CPU issues that are inherrent to the game - my 54000rpm hd, DDR2 667mhz ram too - but I dunno if this is ignorant but I didn't think they'd cause that - and reading the net it certainly seems these aren't really the issues, although I remember something about the game unpacking its textures very frequently? My HD doesn't thrash about though, so I dunno.

 

Anyway I will check out that ini file now - I think I may have it, just need to check - but thanks either way, its good to hear :)

 

My hd is sata2 and I've no raid array but there is an onboard one - I believe turned off at bios and not used. I'm not gonna pretend to be the expert there though, I absorb whatever I've come across so gaps in my knowledge are what they are.

 

Still the question is raised though if anyone knows of any load balancing software that might exist? I dunno...would be useful too.